Not quite a good news for travelers since the Finance Ministry decided to increase the service tax on AC and freight services fares. The increase would be about 3.7 per cent and this will start on October 1.

A notification was issued in order to let people know regarding this increase and it will take effect on fares of AC First Class, Executive Class, AC-2 tier and AC Chair Car. The decision about this increased was formulated by a meeting between Railway Minister CP Joshi and Finance Minister P Chidambaram.

This new increase in fare would take effects to tickets issued in advance for journeys to commence on or after the date of the increase implementation. The tickets will be recovered either by TTEs in the train or by the booking offices is eve the tickets are already issued excluding the new tax service. There is definitely a good reason for this increase and this will be found out soon enough.